Proposal - Tender application

To reduce the number of vaccine-preventable deaths in NSW, the state government has invested funds towards increasing the state’s immunisation rate to 98%, with targeted programs in the Northern Eastern suburbs of Sydney that have the lowest rate of full-immunised five-year-olds (below 90%).

Executive Summary

The vaccination program is one of the safest and effective means for the control and eradication of several diseases. However, due to the unfounded fear among the population of New South Wales and other parts of Australia, there have been reducing in the number of vaccinations being administered. However, this project intends to change that and raise the number of vaccinations to reduce vaccine-preventable deaths in the country and in the area as well. Hence, a focused project would be conducted in the Northern Eastern suburbs of Sydney with a target population of 5 years old in the area. This project has provided a detail of the key activities to be performed as well as the implications of the program short and long term have also been given. The roles and responsibilities of the professionals would also be distributed accordingly that can determine the success of the program.

1. Background and Needs Assessment

There are large sections of the Australian society that are suffering due to the low number of vaccines. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) (2020), there has been a steady rise in the deaths due to vaccine-preventable diseases. Influenza has contributed about 36% of the total of vaccine-preventable diseases in 2015 (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), 2020). The main issue that this project would seek to address is that rising dates due to less inoculation of vaccines among the citizens of the country can prevent the majority of the premature deaths. This project aims to reduce the number of vaccine-preventable deaths in the New South Wales wait for interventions from the funding by the state government. This project is a tender application that details the particulars of the intended achieving of the 98% immunization rate within the state.

Statement of the problem

Due to the abstaining of the people of the state of NSW from vaccination, the number of premature deaths has been rising steadily. However, if the immunization rate in the state can be increased to 98%, a vast majority of health issues, as well as the burden on the health care services, would be reduced. Hence, the government has declared to focus on the Northern Eastern suburbs of Sydney in NSW as the target location for immunization. The problem is highly affecting the people of the locality and the immunization rate is the lowest in the area for which the area has been chosen. The target population would be 5-year old who may be prevented from severe diseases in the future if they are immunized immediately. 

Impact of the problem

Although not all deaths are preventable, there are some diseases like influenza, pneumococcal diseases, meningococcal diseases and other diseases that are preventable with vaccinations. In addition to that, the risk of exposure to several diseases also significantly reduced due to vaccinations. Hence vaccinations and immunization have been successful insignificant reducing the number of children dying from infectious diseases in the country. According to Sydney (2020) reports, the Australian Immunization Handbook recommends the influenza vaccine to be inoculated to children under the age of 5 to prevent complications arising due to it. This particular exhibits the health benefits that are enjoyed by the children population of the area due to the application of mass immunization which must be stepped up. The positive impacts vaccinations are also recorded in the wide variety of diseases which are covered through the inoculation of new vaccines. There are more than 15 diseases which are covered by new vaccines and innovation can prevent significant health issues from developing in the future for the children under the age of 5 such as whooping cough, meningococcal disease and others (Sydney, 2020). Hence, vaccinations have positive impacts as reported by NSW Child Death Review Team (CDRT) states that all the vaccine-preventable diseases are rare in the country, the need for continuing vaccination and mass immunization is required.

Stakeholder Analysis

The primary stakeholders of the vaccination program to be undertaken are:

Children/communities: Since the children are the direct beneficiaries of the vaccination programs as the focus of the state government is to inoculate 98% of the children below the age of 5 years so that the majority of vaccine-preventable diseases can be stopped. The children would benefit from the risk of exposure to diseases like whooping cough and others while serious complications arising from it can also be avoided if the children are vaccinated early in their childhood.

Government of NSW: The government of New South Wales has to spend a considerable amount of finances for the health and interventions to prevent any loss of life as well as to raise the standard of well-being among the community. Vaccination is an effective way in which a plethora of diseases can be prevented or early development of systemic immunity could be developed within the children to safeguard them from any future issues.  

Health organisations: The overall health and well-being of the community of New South Wales would be improved due to the inoculation of vaccinations among the children below the age of 5 years old, an initiative to be executed by various health organisations like WHO, NGOs and local hospitals. Vaccination is an effective method of adoption to reduce the burden on the healthcare systems of the community as well as develop integrated immunity within the population for mass eradication of several diseases like polio, influenza, whooping cough and others.

Print media: The media would be responsible for creating awareness in the masses about the benefit from the risk of exposure to diseases like whooping cough and others while serious complications arising from it can also be avoided if the children are vaccinated early in their childhood.

[Refer to Figure 1]

Stakeholder Engagement Strategy

The stakeholders of the vaccination program that are to be introduced in the localities of New South Wales require a strong engagement strategy which does not only employ individual factors but also a multitude of influences such as interpersonal or behavioural factors to employ the vaccination program. According to Schölmerich&Kawachi (2016), the socio-ecological approach of health promotion focused on social as well as the attitude and behaviour of individuals in order to modify them. The focus of the model is on the interrelationship between the various stakeholders as well as the environment in which the health implementation is being done. The people of the locality have been safeguarded from several health issues and complications arising from diseases like influenza and whooping cough due to the inoculation of vaccination in the children below the ages of 5 years old. The stakeholders would be engaged through widespread education and awareness programmes undertaken by the government of the state so that the news about the advantages as well as the benefits accrued due to the vaccination campaigns can make the population aware as well as change their attitudes in favour of vaccination. In addition to the guiding theory would be to apply and integrate a concerted effort by the various tiers of governmental health promotion strategies such as suggesting and recommending pregnant women to get their babies immunized immediately.

2. Project design and implementation plan

Project Goal

The primary goal of the project is to gain funding through proper explanation and education by providing sufficient literature as well as existing proof that supports vaccination and immunization programs to be implemented in the Northeastern suburbs of Sydney which has the lowest rate of full immunization among the children of 5 years old. The aim of the program would be to develop an integrated plan which can be applied for providing all tiers of community and society with vaccination so that the eradication of diseases that are preventable by vaccines can be effectively done within the population.  

Objectives

• To provide informational insights into the advantages of vaccinations among the target population
• To plan a stakeholder engagement strategy for effective application
• To gain funding required for the application of the plan in the Northern Eastern suburbs of Sydney

Major Outputs

The major target that could be achieved by the project is that the implementation of the plan would mean that 98% of the children below the ages of 5 years old would be vaccinated. In addition to the act. The other outputs which can be expected from this project are that the infectious diseases would reduce significantly among the population as well as vaccine-preventable diseases like whooping cough and diphtheria would also reduce significantly among the children. The outputs also signify that deaths due to these diseases as well as from complications arising from them will also be reduced significantly in the people of Northern Eastern suburbs of Sydney. These are the major tasks of the project which would be achieved and various tasks and functionalities attributed to various stakeholders and professionals involved in the project should be targeted for achieving the objectives that can provide the project with these outcomes. 

Clear and achievable

The opposite has been described above can be clearly achieved through the various tasks and functionalities that are to be completed by the various stakeholders of the program. The key project activities involved are as follows: 

Table 1: Key Activities

(Source: Created by the author)

Project Management

According to Kerzner (2017), the project management requires consideration of various factors such as planning, allocation of resources, time management and others for successful implementation and efficient execution of the entire project. The issues of management may include time restrictions as well as the completion of the entire project using the financial resources allocated. Since the vaccination program is elaborate consisting of several professionals as well as cooperation between several interdepartmental organizations, there can be management issues which should be addressed beforehand. Issues of authority and dependency on others should also be mentioned in this regard so that any department of professional does not feel overwhelmed with the responsibility or disheartened as well. As stated by Meredith, Mantel Jr & Shafer (2017), distribution of responsibilities and resources for carrying out the various tasks that have been determined by the professional would mean efficiency of management. This project of vaccination would be divided according to the areas of application such as Northern and Eastern regions while the team of professionals also be divided into respective teams to carry out various tasks. For example, a team of professional would be given the responsibility of collaborating with various educational institutions in the area to spread information and educate the children about the benefits of vaccination as well as their parents while the other team would be given the responsibility of organizing vaccination drives in low penetrated areas of the locality so that more people can be brought within the ambit of immunization. The funding required for carrying out the project would be $50,000 to $100,000 each year for five years to reach the target of 98% immunization among the people. Presently, less than 90% of the children below the ages of 5 in the area are immunized which should be increased by a combined effort of socio-ecological theory or behavioural changes required. These changes can be integrated with combined efforts of the various teams completing the key activities in the given timeframe. The health promotion concept of action and action competence would be deployed by the professionals of the program to show that a perspective and the setting and equity of health can be established which would be utilized to generate positive health concepts among the population of the state. It is expected that the population would participate and involve themselves in the vaccination program if the vaccination drives are conducted regularly and required information about the effects of it are collected for analysis so that necessary changes to the management as well as alignment of the strategies can be done for better results.

4. Evaluation plan

The effects and benefits of the key activities, as well as the application of vaccination programmes for reducing the number of preventable deaths in the children below the ages of 5 years in Northern Eastern suburbs of Sydney, can be evaluated through proper data collection. Shah, NaghiGanji&Coutroubis (2017) have also stated that the evaluation plan helps in the understanding of the effectiveness of the applied strategies as well as ascertaining the value it adds to the project itself. The evaluation plan for assessing the effectiveness of the vaccination programs would be done by collecting information about children who have been vaccinated. The plan is to collect information on the children who come to the vaccination centres as well as during the vaccination drive so that necessary information can be analyzed to understand what percentage of the children population are being vaccinated. The parents of the children would also be asked to fill a short form which details some particulars about the number of children they have and a number of children that have been immunized so that a broader perspective of immunization can be generated through the evaluation method. This evaluation method would also be immediate as the professionals would be required to file a report about the numerical data to a central database for overall analysis. This information can also serve to evaluate if the strategies of project implementation that are being deployed are working or not. 

Outcomes

The outcomes of the programs seek to develop positive inclinations among the population of New South Wales so that maximum numbers of children are vaccinated and immunized to prevent them from some health complication in the future. The outcomes are as follows:

Short term: The short-term outcomes of the vaccination program are to prevent a significant number of communicable and non-communicable diseases like diphtheria, whooping cough, influenza and others.  

Mid-term: The mid-term outcomes are to reduce dependency and pressure healthcare services of the country as well as safeguard the teenage population from several complications arising from these diseases. 

Long term: The long-term outcomes that are expected from the program are that the overall health and immunity of the person, as well as that of the community as a whole, would be improved. Several diseases would also be eradicated due to vaccinations which are targeted to be achieved through vaccinations.  

5. Team

The organization is experienced in handling mass vaccination programs. They are actively engaged in community development programs as well as health interventions in various levels of the society which makes them expert in the problems and issues faced for implementation of government interventions. The vaccination programs are a major strategy that is to be implemented with maximum perforation of every layer of society so that each child below the ages of five are vaccinated. It is so that a significant increase in the vaccination ratio as well as a reduction in the number of preventable deaths among the population can be noted. The team has already engaged in several capacities and the proper planning and application of key and functionalities that have to be executed in order to achieve aims and objectives of this project signify the expertise in handling this project as well. There are going to be multiple teams which would consist of 10 to 15 members in each team. The team would comprise of a team leader, health professionals, nurses and others. They would be trained prior to the conferring responsibilities on them so that their capabilities, strengths and weaknesses can be assessed to determine the rule that would be fit for them.

The overall operation of a team would be the responsibility of the team leader who would coordinate with other team members to execute and plan as well as overlook the entire operation of the team on a daily basis. The nurses and health professionals would be responsible for the actual immunization function as they require technical knowledge which they possess. The inoculation would only be administered by a registered nurse or my health professional who possesses the required training. The multiple teams around the locality would be led by a coordinator who would liaise with a government-appointed official to track and provide necessary feedback to the funders. The SWOT analysis of the team members would be done to find the strengths and weaknesses and allocate the duties accordingly that aptly fits them and their abilities (Gürel& Tat, 2017). The various team members would work in tandem and a feedback channel would also be developed to address any issues and challenges that are faced by the professionals involved in the project.

6. Budget

Budget (1^st Year)

Budget-2^nd Year

7. Annexes

7.1 Stakeholder matrix

Figure 1: Stakeholder matrix

Source: Created by author

7.2 Project Activity Schedule (Gantt chart)

7.3 Program Logic